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Galo Pesantes: |
| Rhiannon Mim: My heart swoons when cars go vroom Rhiannon Mim archives |
| Erin Konrad: Designers design it, celebs make it work Erin Konrad archives |
Susan Acker: |
| Andres Rivera: Leap year wastes no time Andres Rivera archives |
| Madison Steff: Plastic surgery filters true friends Madison Steff archives |
| Jennifer Gilderman: My little lifeline Jennifer Gilderman archives |
| Jennifer Kitzmann: Education is crucial despite cost Jennifer Kitzmann archives |
| Marilee Lorusso: Time to get priorities straight Marilee Lorusso archives |
| Sher Porter: A new year brings inner growth Sher Porter archives |
Francine Gobert: |
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Technology limits life’s little pleasures |
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Posted March 07, 2008 |
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Susan Acker Before age seven, I had no clue that computers or cell phones existed. I was not raised in a home where we did not own a television or anything like that, but we were different. Evenings were filled with the voices of Bing Crosby and Dean Martin playing on the record player. We did not have a CD player or iPods either. Neither can hold a candle to an original recording on vinyl. We also read a lot. Memories from my early childhood are filled with my parents reading to my sister and me. Weekends were always an adventure. We spent much of our childhood at El Monte Airport and at car shows. My dad had a fully restored 1961 Pontiac Bonneville convertible. My family was also big on spending quality time traveling. Yosemite and the the Reno Air Races were yearly events. Both of my parents allowed us to experience life firsthand, not through watching TV. We were not slaves to technology the way I fear I am today. I hate to admit it, but in the last few years I have become trapped in technology’s tangled web and I am finding it difficult to get out. No matter what time day or night, I have my cell phone on and my new laptop, which I am often times very thankful for, is always within reach. All of this technology is beginning to feel like a curse. If I sit down to listen to some music or read a book, my phone inevitably rings. Nobody may have called me the whole day, but as soon as I sit down to read, that darn thing starts screaming, “Pick me up!” And believe me, I have tried going a day without the sound on, but I always have this fear that if I miss that one call, my world may fall apart. After all of the arguing I do with myself over whether or not to leave the sound on, the only call I get ends up being from a telemarketer. Computers and the Internet are just as bad, if not worse. E-mail is great. I can send someone a message and they get it in seconds. I can send documents and pay bills online. And filing taxes is a real breeze. But what are we sacrificing for all of the convenience? Human contact. It really drives me nuts when I want to talk to my friends or family members and I call them and leave a message and they send me an e-mail or a text message in reply. Sometimes it’s nice to hear a voice on the other end of a telephone. I know it’s a novel concept, but a little personal contact can mean so much. And what happened to writing real letters? You know the kind that you write with a pen and send in an envelope with a stamp on it, a tangible piece of paper, not just some e-mail that can be erased with the click of a button. Everything is so impersonal. I miss life without computers and cell phones. Perhaps living without all of this new technology is a dream, but one day I will try it. I will unplug everything and take every battery out and listen to some music or read a book without fearing my world as I know it will crumble to pieces. Susan Acker, a senior broadcast major, is Web editor of the Campus Times. She can be reached by e-mail at sacker@ulv.edu. |
